I want to gain muscle and lose weight. Is this a realistic goal? How does this look, if it is?

It is possible to do this, over time, sustainably, by building healthy habits.

Check out the first part of this 2-part series.

Andrew & Niki explore the journeys of different "typical" Barbell Logic clients and what these processes look like.

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page.

Gain Muscle and Lose Weight - Older, Fluffy Man

This type of client tends to be a busy, middle-aged professional and dad who's put a bit more fat around the belly than he'd like. One might call him fluffy.

Certain habits that didn't lead to a large waist when they were younger have caught up with them. Some likely culprits include alcohol, large (especially weekend meals) highly processed meals, or fatty grilled meats.

Often times, these clients can white knuckle fairly strictly for awhile, and can often eat healthy on weekdays, but weekends and maybe summer tend to present challenges.

They may have made progress in the gym or in some physical activity, but whatever progress they have made no longer matters compared to their waist and appearance (plus how they feel).

They may tend to be on or off, so they have big swings of calories.

When helping these clients, addressing those big swings is important. It does not mean that they cannot eat these foods, but there needs to be some portion control so some pizza does not turn into a whole pizza. A drink doesn't turn into 3 every night.

The other big consideration is sleep. Building good sleep habits helps here, both with decision making, hormones, and overall health. Additionally, if alcohol is a problem, bringing attention to how alcohol affects sleep can help.

Gain Muscle and Lose Weight - Busy Mom

The busy mom shares some similarities with the previous client, but some important differences exist too.

These clients tend to have younger children, and with parental duties and work duties, duties to themselves often come last.

When any area falls short, they tend to beat themselves up.

The good development for clients like this, is that more women are accepting that adding muscles leads to looking better. They are often not simply looking to "be skinny."

Similar to the men, they need to avoid the unstable nutrition (the "I deserve this" meal that leads to guilt).

Giving these clients validation with simply getting certain things done is critical. Completing a workout, even if it does not go well (it's a "bad" workout) matters.

Filling out the VFD, meal prep - the validation of building those habits is huge.

Talking about 3 months as opposed to a year or a couple weeks is big.

Also, need to shake the "1200 calories" anchor point.

You Can Gain Muscle and Lose Weight

When it comes to gaining muscle and losing weight, it takes time, it takes healthy habits, and it takes realistic expectations.

If you look at the above and the previous clients, the discussion centers around nutrition. Training matters, but training does not have to change very much.

One consideration may be the focus of PRs. You as the coach may consider drawing attention to different types of PRs (higher rep, different variations, or bodyweight exercises). Or, you may consider discussing PRs at lower bodyweight.

Lastly, conditioning, while we love conditioning, is not the way to gain muscle and lose weight. Do conditioning for your health. Don't try to burn your way into a calorie deficit.

That being said, conditioning is a healthy habit that we fully endorse.

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